Month: May 2013

It is really wonderful to see the evolution and creativity of a community garden that the Grandview Woodland Food Connection helped to create. Check out the new gate, lovingly built by members of the garden. It is a testament to the power of community gardens and building community as we see these gardens become incubators of many new projects, food and otherwise. And we see the intersection of art and food with art as a fantastic tool for community engagement.

The 18th annual Stone Soup Festival just held this past May 11 at Britannia was by all accounts another wonderful success. For those of us involved in the food security movement, Stone Soup was a great opportunity to connect with like minded folks and groups engaged in a variety of food projects. For those new to food security, the festival provides an opportunity to learn about so many great projects in Vancouver. The focus on urban agriculture this year celebrates of the enormous growth of urban ag in Vancouver, from urban farms to community and backyard gardening projects. In fact, urban agriculture in Vancouver is exploding. Only a few years back City Farm Boy Ward Tuelon was the only game in town and the forerunner to probably more than a dozen urban farmers in Vancouver today. Urban Digs, SoleFoods, Victory Gardens, Fresh Roots, Inner City Farms,and Kitsilano Farms are just a few new groups that have emerged in the past few years.

The Stone Soup Festival provides a snapshot of some of the most innovative community food programming in the City. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the alternative food movement. For more photos of Stone Soup click here.

Our day began with the lovely youth at 8J9J. This is their first time building a garden, and have been working hard to get the project going! Students build 3 raised beds in March, and filled them up with fresh soil from the city. In March we also worked together to sow seeds in their indoor garden, including tomatoes, lettuces, kale and cilantro. Over the past few weeks we have planted peas, calendula, nasturtium, radish, kale, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, chives, tomatoes and cucumbers.

We are thrilled to finally have a new logo that more closely reflects the Grandview Woodland Food Connection. As a Neighbourhood Food Network, we are geographically affiliated with a particular neighborhood – Grandview Woodland. This is a defining quality of the NFNs. I wanted to create a logo that reflected this sense of neighbourhood and community. The homes and buildings represent the urban context within which we work. The homes connected represent community with of course food as the container of community.

A big thanks to Sam Bradd (www.sambradd.com‎) for his design talents in creating our new logo.

Contact

Email: gwfcnetwork@gmail.com

Tel: 604-718-5895

Honoring Coast Salish Lands and Water

We recognize that we live and work on unceded Coast Salish land and serve many Indigenous communities who live in our neighbourhood. We believe that those of us who are settlers on this land have a deep responsibility to address colonial systems of power and oppression, most importantly as they impact Indigenous people and their food systems today. It is through this understanding that we are working to develop a decolonization framework through which all our future programs will be planned and implemented.